Same-day voter registrations surge in Durham

Wednesday

Nov 7, 2012 at 3:15 AM

From STAFF REPORTS and The NEW HAMPSHIREnews@fosters.com

DURHAM — The line started 30 feet beyond the doors of Oyster River High School. It bent down long hallways and doubled back on itself before finally entering a large room of plastic tables and forms. Harried volunteers handed out clipboards and pens, and chatted about the possibility of running out of forms.

In the midst of a hectic day of voting, Durham Town Administrator Todd Selig helped to keep the mass of voters moving.

“We have had a huge turnout for same-day registration,” he said. “The queue has averaged ... 250, 300 at a time.”

The number of new voters requesting ballots in Durham swelled during Tuesday’s election, driven in large part by students at the University of New Hampshire, according to Selig. At approximately 2 p.m., Town Clerk Lorrie Pitt was planning an excursion away from the polls to grab hundreds more registration forms.

Durham’s record for same-day voter registration was shattered Tuesday, according to unofficial results released late Tuesday evening by the town. A total of 3,024 people registered to vote after arriving at the polls; that’s about 1,300 more voters than the tally from 2008.

“To put this in perspective, during the 12 hours the polls were open on Tuesday, Durham added more new voters to its rolls than most New Hampshire towns and cities (two thirds of them) already had preregistered before the election,” Selig wrote in an email.

In the lead-up to the election, controversy swirled around the voting procedures that applied to UNH students registering at the polls — especially those from out of state.

A new state law that was set to take effect during this year’s election would essentially have compelled all students voting in New Hampshire to become legal residents of the state. The requirement would have forced them to register their cars in New Hampshire, and obtain new state driver’s licenses, should they choose to continue driving within the state.

However, the law was placed on hold by a Strafford County judge in September after it was challenged by four out-of-state college students and the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire.

Although the new voter registration law did not take effect, state election officials expressed concern that students and other voters might be left confused on Tuesday about the requirements for registering to vote.

Another area of concern for election officials was the state’s new voter identification law. The law, in effect for the first time this year, requires voters to either show a valid identification with a photograph in order to cast a ballot, or alternatively, to sign a statement attesting to their identity.

New Hampshire was one of several states in which lawmakers recently passed laws requiring voters to show identification, measures that proponents say will cut down on voter fraud. Critics, including many Democrats, argue the new voter ID laws are unnecessary, and that they stand to freeze out some eligible voters.

Last week, the New Hampshire attorney general and secretary of state called a news conference to stress the message that no voter would be turned away during Tuesday’s election, even if they cannot produce valid photo identification.

The new voter ID law remained in effect Tuesday, and, although critics of the new law feared the worst, early indications were that the new identification requirements caused few problems at the polls.

“The voter ID seems to be going very smoothly,” Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlan said shortly before 2:30 p.m. “I haven’t heard of any real problems. There have been a couple of reports of protesting, but aside from that, most people are showing their IDs when they go to the polling place.”

Scanlan said his office has received isolated complaints from voters who claim they were told by election officials they were required to have a photo ID, but none have been confirmed.

In the run-up to the election, the groups Granite State Progress Education Fund and New Hampshire Citizens Alliance launched an outreach effort to clarify the new voter ID regulations. The website, www.NHVoterProtection.org, also contains a guide for voters on how to take action if they’re challenged at the polls.

One of the group’s most high-profile moves was criticizing a campaign flier circulated by Republican state Senate candidate Phyllis Woods. The flier mistakenly stated that voters are obligated to have a photo ID this year.

“The good news is that through a lot of the voter education the voter protection team did, we haven’t seen as many problems as we thought would happen otherwise,” GSPE Executive Director Zandra Rice Hawkins said Tuesday afternoon.

Rice Hawkins said her group has dispatched election watchers to a few areas Tuesday after receiving reports of voters encountering problems.

One report came from Pelham, where a voter said someone was standing in front of a sign regarding the new challenged voter affidavits and telling people that they needed to have a photo ID.

“We didn’t witness that,” Rice Hawkins said. “We did find that the selectmen down there are taking shifts, and they’re greeting (voters) down at the door and letting them know that if they have a photo ID, it will expedite matters.”

The group has also received more than one report regarding Nashua’s Ward 9, where voters have indicated they were told they will not be allowed to vote without a photo ID. The group has also dispatched a monitor to Nashua.

Otherwise, Rice Hawkins said, it appears that the new voter ID law is being interpreted correctly in most polling locations.

“We do think that that is because of the large number of presentations and fliers and online ads educating voters about the process and the alternatives to a voter ID,” she said.

The group is hoping the state will take on some of the financial burden of educating voters about new voting requirements in advance of the next election.

“That comes at a cost to our organizations,” she said.

Town Moderator Chris Regan said local election officials were able to move voters through a waiting line more efficiently this year than during the 2008 election. Regan said most same-day registrants appeared to be UNH students, though he had seen others in line.

Anthony Blenkinsop, an official at the attorney general’s office, was on hand in Durham Tuesday to ensure the line of voters waiting to cast ballots remained orderly.

“Our primary objective is to keep the line moving along,” said Blenkinsop, “we haven’t had any issues other than the same day registration line is pretty long.”

Among local voters, the new voter ID law seemed to be engendering little controversy Tuesday. Susan Jackson, 32, a Rochester voter, said although she does not have an ID, she “did a good job” filling out the required affidavit swearing she is who she says she is.

“It was a process,” said Jackson, who said she had to fill out two forms before getting in line to vote.

Rochester resident Stephen Brown, 43, agrees with the new Voter ID law. He said that in 2008, he saw several vehicles with Massachusetts plates pull up to polling places in Deerfield to vote. The new law, he said, will help cut down on voter fraud, at least when it comes to out-of-state residents voting in New Hampshire.

Dorothy Urrutia, 36, of Rochester, said whether or not an ID is required at the polls “doesn’t matter to me.”

“Why not? We all have one,” she said.

“I’m accustomed to being asked for ID,” said Rochester voter Samantha Briggs. She said the new law will help ensure residents are voting legally.

Mario St. Remy, 27, of Newmarket, said that even though voter fraud appears to be rare across the country, it’s smart to require voters to show their IDs at the polls. He noted that being able to register on Election Day makes it easier on voters.

Lee Skinner, Dover’s Ward 4 moderator, said there had not been any problems with voter identification procedures.

“Most people have an ID. The few that don’t, we are being careful right up front in saying, ‘If you don’t have an ID, don’t leave.’ Some other places seem to have misinformation. Not here. We’ve done a few voter affidavits. We’ve had no confrontations, nothing dramatic,” he said.

Foster’s staff writers Jim Haddadin, Michelle Kingston and Liz Markhlevskaya, and Brian Ward, of The New Hampshire, contributed to this report.